Wednesday, January 11, 2012

2011 Chocolate Fashion Show Tribute to Phantom of the Opera!!

Inspired by Phantom of the Opera, Stephen Collucci (Colicchio & Sons) and Althea Harper (NY based designer and finalist on Lifetime's Project Runway) I really loved the chocolate mask with this design, really very beautiful.........

As if chocolate weren’t already tempting enough! For this year’s Chocolate Fashion Show I was asked to collaborate with pastry chef, Stephen Collucci, to create a garment that reflected the Broadway theme and was made of 40% chocolate! We agreed that Phantom of the Opera was the perfect musical selection for our chocolate creation.

We drew inspiration from the musical by highlighting the tension between good and evil with the sheer white draping sleeves and an edgy mosaic on the asymmetrical burgundy skirt. These two elements were pulled together by a dark chocolate corset with a gold lace detail up the front. The exaggerated white mask is the final signature to the overall look and really made the outfit stand out on the runway!

Sketching ideas was the easy part; however, when it came to applying chocolate on to fabric it was new to me! With this Chocolate Fashion Show being my first along with a first for the pastry chef, we had a few challenges with actually how the application of chocolate worked. Everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly till we actually had to put the garment on the model. The chocolate on the corset was very solid and we didn’t want to move it too much, but in order to get it on the model we ended up cracking a few areas! Luckily we managed to get everything on with only a few minor struggles. The final touches of hair and make-up added the perfect drama and overall the outfit looked great walking down the runway!

The Chocolate Fashion Show was such a great environment and everyone was having so much fun (I am sure it helped that everywhere you looked there was chocolate)!

Stephen Collucci made a milk chocolate caramel tart in the culinary demonstration booth. You can check out information on Colicchio and Sons HERE where he is pastry chef.

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